There are now many interactive audio programs and/or video programs (hereinafter abbreviated as audio/video programs) provided on audio/video websites that can display user-submitted comments as subtitle data. The subtitle data is generally displayed in motion directly on the audio/video player window corresponding to the audio/video program. Because user subtitle data can be displayed in motion on the audio/video player window, users can interact with the program and become more engaged while viewing audiovisual content or listening to audio and can increase the users' understanding of the audio/video content. The subtitle data display technology in which user subtitle data is displayed in motion on the audio/video player window is generally referred to as subtitle data moving display technology. The subtitle data moving display technology provides a moving display of the subtitle data published by the user at the same moment in or at different time periods in played audiovisual or audio content.
As the number of participating users increases, the subtitle data volume corresponding to the audio/video content becomes increasingly large. An issue associated with subtitle data moving display technology has become how to provide a complete subtitle data motion algorithm to solve the problem of determining a kind of tracks and time points that the subtitle data is to follow so as to determine the course of subtitle data motion on the screen. According to some related art of subtitle data moving display technology, the following approaches to implementing moving display of subtitle data are typical:
A first method to implement moving display of subtitle data includes dividing a designated zone of the screen in one screen direction into multiple rows of tracks, randomly selecting tracks, randomly selecting subtitle data, and placing the subtitle data on the tracks for processing. The initial position of the coordinates at which all the screen data starts to move is the width of the designated zone. In the process of displaying subtitle data in motion, when the speeds of motion of various subtitle data are inconsistent, and when an excess of subtitle data exists, different pieces of subtitle data can overlap.
A second method to implement moving display of subtitle data includes dividing a designated zone of the screen in one screen direction into multiple rows of tracks, randomly selecting data, and placing the selected data on a blank track for motion. The selected subtitle data is played on the blank track for display in motion as long as the track does not have subtitle data. Because only randomly selected subtitle data is placed in blank tracks, the track is not fully utilized, and the subtitle data cannot be accurately matched with the audio/video. Consequently, when, in the subtitle data motion process, there is too much subtitle data for display, a lot of the subtitle data cannot be displayed on the screen. Therefore, some related art is not satisfactory when applied to audio/video with large volumes of subtitle data.
In summary, there is a need for a method, device, and system for better managing subtitle data.